Our town has a pizza shop next to the movie theater. For Brett's 16th, his friends met him (and us) at the pizza shop for pizza/wings/cupcakes and then the boys walked over to the movie theater. They had a great time, and we didn't have any mess to pick up

Lucky Mom to Brett [12/6/93] and Sean [11/1/99]

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; It's whether we provide enough for those who have too little." FDR

DD just turned 14 and said that "no-one" has birthdays anymore. She just had a few friends over and thought that was fine. They were planning to camp in the back yard overnight but it was too cold and one of the girls had to go swimming the next morning.

I really can't remember. I generally took their lead, and Brian didn't want parties like Courtney did. Many times, we would have cake with one or two of his neighborhood friends and maybe a pizza. Occasionally, he did want some random thing like a pay per view fight and we did things like that with friends of his although it wasn't his birthday.

I would do what you think he'd like, even if it's just dinner out with the family to his favorite restaurant.

Nothing! We went out for pizza with my family. My nephew and Joseph share a birthday. Matthew is 14 years younger than Joseph, and for his second birthday he wanted pizza and Joseph was good with that.

Two of Duncan's buddies are having a joint b-day party for....60+ kids! They are actually renting a hall, hiring a dj, etc. The one boy is from a big Italian family and they ALWAYS go over the top on their parties (First Communion, Confirmation, 8th grade graduation, etc.). This is the oldest boy, so they are pulling out all the stops!

As for Duncan...he turns 16 in February. I don't know what we will do. And I don't remember what we did for Colin.

Hollie, what about a weekend away somewhere? Is there somewhere neat he'd like to go? I find trips are the most memorable experience for us as a family. You don't even have to go on his birthday, but give him a travel coupon or something.

By the time mine were teens we stopped having big birthday parties in lieu of a trip/outing with friends. They choose two friends: Haley spent the night at a hotel with dinner and salon nails, while Alex took 3 friends to Six Flags on a day trip but didn't spend the night. We will likely do something like that for their 16th as well.

Brooks turns 16 later this month. We bought 6 tickets to the Jay Z concert that is on his actual bday. He is inviting 5 friends to go with. We will have them over for dinner/cake before the concert. DH and I are not going to the concert but will drive them to and from.

He had asked to have some friends over to hang out and have pizza before he knew about the concert tickets so I know he would have been happy to just do that too (that is what he did last year)

Brooks~17, Parker~15, Hunter~11, Carter~7 ... boys' ages are correct but picture is 3 years old! They have grown several inches!!